Dr. Zooch SLS Build Part 31 Engine Bells & Decals

Instead of the recommended Testor's #1180 Steel I used Testor's #1145 Gunmetal Steel. It's not quite a full black and looked great on the nozzles.
For painting, the nozzles were stuck down to some masking tape, sticky side up. The small end of the nozzle was set on the tape. This kept the paint off the small end gluing edges.

The engine bells were tacked in place with white glue.
Center the bells evenly inside the fairings.

After the white glue set up, I went back in with some medium CA applied with a toothpick. I made sure I got a CA fillet along the inside edges of the bell.

The yellow trash bag parachute was assembled.
To make a tri-fold shock cord mount, the instructions say to: "cut a rectangular strip that is 1/2" wide and just over 1" long."
I've seen this in the Dr. Zooch instructions before. Considering the elastic shock cord is 1/4" wide, this piece of cardstock seems very small.
I cut my tri-fold piece from left over kit cardstock, it measured 1" wide by 2 1/2" long.

Looking back on the latest Space.com artistic rendering, the words UNITED STATES and a NASA "meatball" logo were added.
Up to this point, the upper section of the SLS is all white. I wanted to add the additional decals to make it more interesting.

Here's the decal sheet I made up.
I hate to waste most of a decal sheet for such a small set of decals, so I added a vertical "USA" and many upsizes of the SLS decals I needed. It's a full 8 1/2" X 11" decal sheet with plenty of NASA logos, Flags, USA and UNITED STATES decals for future use.

Patreon members: If you'd like a PDF of this art to make your own decals, email me at oddlrocket@bellsouth.net and ask for the NASA/USA decals PDF.

Dr. Zooch SLS Build Part 30 Feeder Line & Engine Bells

If using the Saturn V wraps, you have to wait to glue on the feeder line.
The shaped feeder line dowel was sealed and sanded with two coats of varnish.
It was painted before gluing on the core body.

Instead of cutting away the cardstock wrap to fit the ends of the feeder line dowel, I made recessed notches in the dowel to overlap the cardstock wraps.

Look close in the picture and you can see where the paint was scraped away for a better bond of the white glue. Be careful if you scrape away paint like this, sometimes the paint will want to chip. Keep the scraped line narrow until you see how the paint comes off. Then widen the line but keep it narrower than the width of the feeder tube.




Four engine bells are formed.
Here I'm sanding down the smaller end so the gluing edge is flat all the way around.






The edges will roll over a little bit from the sanding. Don't remove this rolled edge. The wider edge gives a bit more gluing surface.

Dr. Zooch SLS Build Part 29 SRB Struts Oops!

My placement of the launch lugs was wrong!
I didn't want them down the middle of the core tube and thought a side placement wouldn't make them so obvious. I glued them to the side allowing for the launch rod clearance between the SRB skirts and engine fairings.

I didn't read ahead seeing the placement of the SRB struts.
The struts next to the lugs ended up being very small!
Read ahead and plan better than I did!


This is the back (end up until now) with the struts in place.
The flame fins are in place but not pushed all the way in.

Dr. Zooch SLS Build Part 28 SRB Struts

You will need the add the SRB struts for strength. These keep the SRBs on the core body when you slide in or pull out the flame fin assemblies.

I sealed and painted the dowel white before cutting into eight 1/2" long pieces.
The angle was sanded onto both ends of the dowel.

For a better seam and glue joint, a slight curve was added with a half round diamond file. This will better follow the curvature of the adjoining body tubes.




The ends of the struts got a drop of glue and they were set in place with long tweezers.






Any excess glue was picked up with a Q-tip.
TIP: Q-Tips are great for getting glue out of tight areas where your fingertip can't reach. The only downside, you can only use them once. The glue you just removed will quickly dry on the end of the Q-Tip. I always keep them close at hand.

Dr. Zooch SLS Build part 27 Launch Lug Gluing - Oops!

I didn't glue on the lugs back in Step 2A.
I waited for two reasons:

1. I fill the lug seams and knew the lugs would be painted white before gluing in place. Adding the Saturn V wraps changes the way you would paint the model. You mask, paint white and then add the wraps.
2. The instructions were al little vague about the lug placement, so early in the build. I waited so I could be sure of which side of the index line the lugs would be glued on.

The lugs onto the Saturn V cardstock wrap for better glue adhesion. White glue won't stick to the white paint.

I tucked the lugs closer into the joint between the core body and SRB. Not all the way into the joint, there would have to be launch rod clearance by the SRB skirt and engine fairings.

Here's where the lugs were glued.
A launch rod was set beside both lugs to be sure they were in line.

Again - don't glue the lugs this way!
They will be in the way of the SRB struts added later.

Dr. Zooch SLS Build Part 26 SRB Gluing

Use white glue to attach the SRBs!
White glue dries CLEAR, yellow glue dries YELLOW!

Glue was applied to the area of the SRB bands. There is a slight separation at the band seam which gives a little more gluing area.
I applied glue at all the points where the SRB wrap met the cardstock wraps on the core body.

I glued my SRBs a little higher on the core body than the instruction illustration showed. This reflects the newest artistic renditions from NASA. I hope it doesn't effect stability! With the extended flame fins out the back I should be okay with this modification.

Sight down the body from the front and rear to be sure the SRBs are straight!









With a toothpick more glue was applied to the contact points.

Dr. Zooch SLS Build Part 25 Saturn V Wraps

This picture better explains the longer cut of the lowest wrap.
This is another dry fit before the spray adhesive. You can see where the lower edge of the wrap will cover up the boat tail/body tube seam.





TIP: I've read where others have had problems with the spray adhesive getting everywhere.
If you lightly tape the printed side down an a scrap piece of cardboard there is little chance of the the adhesive getting on the print side.




Here you can see how the wrap is stuck down over the masked body tube section.
You could stick the adhesive down on a painted surface, I think you'll get a better hold on the bare body tube.
There is primer on the tube, but I tend to sand primer down to the surface for better adhesion of all glues used.